That is when I stopped reading and googled Nel Noddings. To help me understand and apply the text I figured it would help to know who she is and learn why this topic is important to her. Nel Noddings is a teacher. This seems like a huge understatement, but this simple description seems to be the essence of her and her passion. According to articles on Wikipedia.com and infed.org she taught mathematics for 23 years in Elementary Schools as well as High Schools. She was a school administrator and earned a doctorate in educational philosophy from Stanford University. She is described as a feminist and a philosopher. Much of her work has been in the area of philosophy of education, theory of education and ethics, specifically moral education and ethics of care. She has been Lee L. Jacks Professor of Education, Emerita, at Stanford University since she retired in 1998. Looking at this topic from a teacher’s point of view, or even from my point of view as a parent who is trying to work with teachers to make school a good experience for my son and help him grow, I started to understand how an analysis of caring can play an important role not only in education, but throughout life.

In my new frame of mind, much more open this time, I could see how her writing can permeate every aspect of life. Now I could think of examples when I reviewed the main words she introduces in this chapter. To help me , once again, the get my arms around this topic, I tried to summarize this chapter in one sentence: Truly caring about another person is deeply involved and requires a temporary suspension of one’s own ambitions and notions what it should mean to the other person, and opening oneself up completely to the need of the other person.

One of the topics she discusses is the issue if caring needs to be observable? She uses the example of Mr. Smith in her text. Caring can take place without ever seeing any actions. Sometimes caring means the conscious decision not to take any actions. Is this necessarily better or worse than caring than can be observed? If caring takes place, whether it is outwardly observable by others, or by the cared-for, or takes place invisibly, it should not be judged by others. One has to have an incredibly open mind when assessing situations and having to form an opinion if one person cares about another. The circumstances will always frame what is happening, and those circumstances are viewed differently by different observers.

Another point that caught my attention is her following statement: “…we do not say with any conviction that a person cares if that person acts routinely according so some fixed rule.�(Page 13) It made me think of my own work, the field of safety and injury prevention. Sometimes, adhering to rules on an individual level indicates a level of caring. For example, a nurse who gives an injection disposes of the syringe in an appropriate, safe way. There is a rule that governs her behavior. It may be easier not follow the rule, but she would risk injury to another person who would have to remove the syringe and might get injured. In this case I would argue that the nurse cares enough about her fellow employee to follow the rule and avoid creating a situation that might injure her colleague. I can think of many other examples in the field of safety, where many rules or laws have been created to prevent injuries. But, all these rules or laws mean nothing if the people who work in this environment do not care enough about others to practice them.

In this chapter, Nel Nodding also writes about the limitations of caring. The limitations can be for the self, the one-caring. Expecting of oneself or even trying to care about everyone or everything seems impossible, it would result at best in a loose commitment, at worst, in terrible feelings of guilt or conflict if caring cannot be carried out as intended by the one-caring. For most people, lives are already busy and at times overwhelming. The thought to overextend oneself and not being able to deliver (observable or invisible) the true intentions to the cared-for can cause potentially debilitating frustration. This frustration could be felt by the one-caring as well as the intended cared-for. Another limitation of caring comes in the framework of equal contributions of both parties, the person who cares and the recipient of this caring. Noddings states that if thoughts or actions are given, but not received, the act of caring is not completed. It made me think of, again, the field of safety. If a safety leader, through words and actions, communicates safe work practices, this communication needs to be received by the employees in order to make a difference. If the employees are offended, conflicted or otherwise inclined not to accept acts or thoughts of kindness, caring can have the opposite effect. Ms. Noddings uses the example of students in schools. Teachers play such an important role in their student’s life. If a student is cared-for authentically, she can potentially benefit from this caring throughout the rest of her life. However, if the teacher’s caring cannot be completed in the student, the benefit cannot be achieved. This also means to me that teachers in schools have to accept this awesome responsibility and carefully consider it, before becoming a teacher. Teachers also need to continually review their dedication and caring to remain authentic. If the caring becomes routine, or no longer exists, it might be time to take a break from teaching. Claudia Beermann